Jagd auf Dillinger

This lean, mean cheapo has all the virtues of economy. Lawrence Tierney is great in his impressive debut, ideally cast as the cold, humourless psychopath. In a little over an hour we get the complete biography, with the bad guy hero gunned down with seven dollars and twenty cents in his pocket, the exact amount with which he began his criminal spree.

The scene transitions are tight and efficient, and the story-telling terse and elliptical, giving us only the significant moments in this brief, violent life. No words are wasted when Pa Otto meets his end.

Dmitri Tiomkin provides his customarily excellent music. The lone wailing horn in the prison scenes captures superbly the despair of the inmates, as indeed does the unyielding regularity of the jail architecture.

Verdict - Less is more in this commendably spare gangster flick.

This taut little crime noir is worth watching a couple of times. It has a short running time which was typical of "B" films and it packs a lot of action into a little over 60 minutes.

What a cast this film boasts!!......Edmund Lowe, a former screen idol of the silents and early talkies; Marc Lawrence and Eduardo Cianelli who could never shake their bad guy images; the greatest of all character actors, Elisha Cook Jr. whose career spanned in excess of 50 years; and Lawrence Tierney, born to portray a criminal. Tierney, who was a bad boy in real life (which sank his career for many years before he made a comeback in the 1980s)is the epitome of a cold eyed, hardened gangster who lives for today and the hell with tomorrow. Tierney, whose brother Scott Brady was a recurring presence in films of the 50s, will always be recognized for this part alone and it could have shot him to stardom but his personal life got in the way.......too bad. This film is a standout in the realm of "B" movies and is worthy of it's reputation.

Although it would have been much more appropriate as part of a subsequent Gangster DVD Collection from Warners (rather than the Film Noir in which it was included), DILLINGER is a solid B flick buoyed by a fast pace, a bevy of familiar character actors (Edmund Lowe, Eduardo Cianelli, Marc Lawrence, Elisha Cook Jr.) and a terrific turn by Lawrence Tierney in the title role. Although John Milius' 1973 remake is much more factual and despite an over-reliance on stock footage from bigger-budgeted films - like Fritz Lang's YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE (1937) - the film is also notable for an unusual narrative structure for this type of film in that the events are "told" to a theater audience by John Dillinger's father as a warning against the perils of living life on the wrong side of the tracks! This film also proved to be Monogram's most prestigious production as Philip Yordan received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay!

Low budget, high quality B-film depicting the life of gangster John Dillinger. Seventy minutes of beautiful black & white action. For entertainment's sake I'm certain there is latitude given in the telling. Lawrence Tierney early in his career gives the performance for which he is most remembered...Public Enemy Number One. Rounding out the cast of this little gem are:Anne Jeffreys, Edmund Lowe and Elisha Cook Jr. Kudos to Dimitri Tiomkin for original music.

Note:In real life Tierney would be arrested more times than Dillinger.

I continue to be amazed at the ratings some movies get here. I just saw this snappy little movie and thought sure it would get a higher rating that 6.3. I agree with the another viewer's description of it being a "lean, mean, cheapo." A cheapo yes, but one where not a penny is spent on extraneous scenes. A nice antidote to higher-budgeted (and more highly rated) movies where we're made to spend hours watching actors doing virtually nothing in never-ending, story-killing close-ups. I'd watch this one again in a heartbeat.